Pixiq

I graduated from Icelands Academy of the Arts in spring 2009.  That last semester, aside from writing the dreaded BA thesis,  (a terribly fascinating read, translated roughly to english as "The staged photograph: Fictional reality and modern day fairy tales"), I was faced with the far more exciting but very daunting prospect of creating one final project, a crowning masterpiece (or so I thought of it)  that somehow was meant to reflect the growth and evolution of my work over the three years I'd spent at the school.  I've rarely , before or since, felt as incapable of making a decision.  When I started my studies, I'd planned to become a painter, which seemed a logical evolution from the life-like pencil and pastel drawings I'd been making from photos since my early teens.  Instead I'd become obsessed with all aspects of photography,  and was lost as to how I was going to make this all come together in one final work.  All I knew was that I wanted to create a series of five images.  Either drawings or photos. That's the starting point I set out from.
As I was fast running out of time and felt my brainstorming was getting me nowhere,  I decided to just start somewhere and see what would happen.   Ultimately,  this was the final outcome of two months of brainstorming and painstaking work :

This series, titled (after much debating with myself) The myth of happily ever after , was nothing like I had imagined, and in many ways very different from what I'd done before.  Looking at these five images, however, the viewer probably can't begin to guess the process that led to them.   This series perfectly demonstrates how the creative process itself can often be the most important contributing factor when creating artwork, as I've mentioned before.  In order to shed some light on how these were made and what the series is meant to convey, I'm going to share with you how this project evolved from conception to completion. 

Making props

In the months leading up to this final project, I'd worked on a rather strange experiment which incorporated, among other things, some large white branches and a white sheet.  It occurred to me that I could use one of the images from that project, and create four more in a similar vein.    I decided to make more white props of some sort,  hoping that by the time I'd completed them, my brain would have figured out how to employ them.

The floating window

I began by constructing a window from leftover wood in my parents garage; my previous carpentry-related endeavours could be summed up as "hammering nails into some walls a few times", so for me this wasn't exactly easy.  The completed frame, while a tiny bit crooked and not particularly elegant (shown here with my younger son)

looked convincing enough once I'd painted it white and added a lace curtain.  In order for it to stand upright without the aid of a small child, my brother helped me out by constructing two T-shaped "legs" of steel,  which could be easily screwed onto the window frame, and just as easily removed so the whole contraption could be transported in three pieces.  The legs could then be removed in PS for a floaty effect.  Here I am testing this out in the backyard:

(this window may look familiar from this photo, and this one, both shot later in the summer of 2009)

Once this window was ready,  I was no longer sure about using the selfportrait I'd already made, since the four new images would need to be shot indoors in a similar format in order to work as a series.  I decided the new series would all be shot outdoors, and that I'd incorporate fairy tales in some way. 

Giant flowers

Glancing at the five images up there, you will probably notice there are no giant flowers to be seen anywhere.  Nevertheless, I did spend several days creating them, using thin sheets of some insulating material that came with a large piece of furniture or TV or something, that had been kept around in case they could be used for something.  These sheets I cut into squares,  meticulously folded each square into a "petal" (which I figured out after quite a few unsuccessful attempts and doubt I could remember now off the top of my head), and then threaded six of these "petals" onto a wire to make each "flower" :

I was actually absurdly pleased with these things.  I'll explain later why they weren't used.

Little white animals

While working on the flowers, I'd become more and more excited about the fairy tale theme, and no good fairy tale is without its share of animals. So I decided to make a giant white toad out of clay.  I thought this would be relatively easy, but the toad ended up looking like a pregnant abomination of some undefined species.  After some scrutiny with my eyes half shut,  I realized this misshapen thing could, with some patience, be transformed into a fat white rat:
 
From the rest of the clay, I fashioned four small white mice:

At this point, I realized these tiny animals would never be visible in an outdoor landscape setting.  I pretty much had no idea where I'd shoot these images,  what exactly would be happening in them, wether they'd be selfportraits or if I'd find other models.  In short, my brain was still drawing a blank despite my industrious hands having completed the props.  The graduation show loomed less than two weeks away, and I had all-too vivid images in my head of having to present some ridiculous half-assed project that didn't make any sense to me, much less anyone else..

To be continued in my next post..